Tide Continues to Roll: Robby Green

Nick Saban and Alabama are as hot as it gets right now on the recruiting trail. Bama took three of the top-7 from the state of Tennessee - Donta Hightower, Barrett Jones, Chris Jordan - landed a 400 lb JUCO D-lineman and to top it of Saban got a commitment from D.J. Fluker, who is considered by many one of the top defensive tackles for 2009 (#35 overall).

River Ridge, LA native Robby Green committed to Alabama at a press conference at his high school Tuesday afternoon over USC, Penn St, Michigan, Florida and Arizona St to name a few.

According to Rivals, he does not currently hold an LSU offer.

All the services are in agreement: Rivals-#16 CB, Scout-#13 CB, ESPN-#14 CB

The 6-foot, 180 lb has very few physical flaws. He has good enough size and once he puts on 10-15 pounds he will be big enough to compete with most wideouts. He has great hip-turn and a very quick back pedal. His plant and reaction speed out of his pedal to underneath routes, particularly in zone schemes, is incredibly fast and explosive. He has great all-around athleticism playing very smoothly in open-field situations.

He also plays the run very well. He is not afraid of contact and brings his legs when he tackles. This makes him a great fit for a 'Tampa-2' zone, where the scheme calls for the cornerback to be the main run stopper on the outside gaps.

Fundamentally, he could use some work on his line-of-scrimmage jam technique. Adding some weight and having a defensive backs coach as his HC (Saban) will obviously help that. Also, his pure recovery speed on deep routes against speedy wide receivers is still a question mark as well as his lateral quickness when matched-up in man-to-man situations. Sitting back in coverage and tracking the deep ball is where he is more comfortable.

Green went to John Curtis High School, that name might sound familiar to Alabama fans as Saban was unable to land high school superstar Joe McKnight last season. The efforts on McKnight and of course coaching at LSU, undoubtedly aided in the relationship between Saban and the John Curtis coaching staff. If Bama were to nab more of Louisiana's top-10 - Chris Tolliver, Tyler Edwards, Jerico Nelson - it would be safe to say it did not take long for Saban's influence in that state to become VERY apparent.